I'm giving this book a 4.5/5 rating. I think everyone out there who thinks wealthy people are the problem should read it, though they won't.
Short summary: this book talks a bout the dangers of continuing on our current path. Look past the agenda of equalization and see the actual effects that has on our overall societal prosperity. Recognize that anything society or governments do to slow down economic expansion hurts the middle class and the poor disproportionately. This is not supposition or political point of view. It is economic fact and has been proven time and time again. This book calls out crony capitalism as the true enemy of economic freedom and cautions us from giving the government even more power.
I get a bit ranty past this point, so you might as well stop reading this review now. Thanks for your time :)
Capitalism is the most powerful force for economic equality that has ever been seen. This book shows how that works and why it works. While certain political parties will attack this thought as “failed trickle down economics,” the crazy thing is that there is no basis to the idea that trickle down economics is a failure. Time and time again prosperity economics has been proven to help everybody and equalize the playing field for everyone.
But, it's an interesting world we live in today, here in America. For some reason the media has chosen sides and there is a huge shift in how things are presented compared to how it used to be (the 70's and 80's). One major effect of this is that there appears to be a war on success. If you are successful, that's something to be ashamed of if you share the point of view of the general media. Only one side of the economic debate gets played (the Keynesian) and for that reason, many people think that makes all other economic models or points of view wrong.
But this is actually ridiculous. In many ways. Most importantly because the empiric data shows the Keynesian model is only effective for short periods of time and that the Chicago school or Austrian school economic models are much more accurate representations of how things actually work. Especially over time. But they have a disadvantage in that they don't fit the agenda of pushing for larger government and more governmental power/control.
The real problem, as laid out well, is not capitalism, but Crony Capitalism. Where those who have tons of money and power use those resources to get special favors from their governments. And that is rampant in our system. But the answer isn't to give the government more power. It's to take that power away. Curtail lobbying jobs. Put in place term limits. Eliminate golden parachutes for senators who take campaign contributions from corporations and industries for years and then enact laws that please their masters. And when their constituents finally wise up and kick them out of office, they go to work for those industries lobbying the new senators for 7 figures annually.
That is the problem. This book does a good job at calling that out.
